Had a blocked sewer line at a SFH that's on city sewer. Took about 1 week to get my backhoe man and the locator service in line. The TAP that's where the 4 inch house line connects to the city 8 inch line connect was part way under driveway and 11 ft deep. My hoe man is the best out there and was right on target with no damage to either water or electric or even phone lines. Since part of the dirt we took out was under the slab on driveway we thought it prudent to remove the concrete overhang to keep every one safe. The piece was rectangle maybe 6x6x9ft. We cut the 4 inch line and pulled it out of the city side and there were roots about 4 ft into the city line. We had to call the city to bring their machine and it took about 20 minutes before that broke through. We reconnected the lines and put a clean out above where we worked even with the slab. Had the hoe man back fill the hole and slide the triangle slab back in place-- fit like a glove. Just waiting on some rain to et the ground settle and we'll rake out and seed. Started at 9am finished at 3PM down time was 2 hrs waiting on city boys to come.

Don't have the hoe mans bill but I've used him before and he gives good pricing. I'll let you all know. FYI We supplied all materials- pipe elbows furnco couplings and glue. So you know I left the clean out plug open for 8 days up by the house so tenants could use facilities.

I'm amazed you were able to get all that work done without much more damage to the driveway slab. Very impressive.

Wow, great story. That's very deep! I had an issue with a pipe that was under the street and the city won't let anyone dig up the street except their contractors...so we ended up water-jetting the roots and I then used RootX annually to prevent roots returning. I got videos before and after. The city contractor wanted $9,000 to dig up and replace the small section of street/curb...I said no thanks.

Hoosier a trick I learned several years ago (from one of the water guys)

Once the city 8 inch is clear (they usually only jet it) -- take YOUR pipe and shove it in as far as you can to pass where their roots are. We put in an extra 20 ft of 4" pipe to get us WAY into the main and THEIR problem area. We all know the city isn't going to FIX their side. We glued the 20 ft to our house pipe of 4" and now we've eliminated their problem. Packed in a new donut (that fills the gap between the 4" and 8" city pipe).

Whew! Congratulations on resolving that sewer line issue! I myself am going through a similar issue and was glad to read what you did for a successful job well done.

Thanks for the tips too!

Wow. Great Job. Sounded like a real nightmare of a situation that you aced thru-it!

I had a friend who also had a major sewer situation that the roots from a City Tree got into the sewer main under the street. By being Los Angeles they decided that if I dig up the City Street to make the repair, then we'd have to pay to re-pave the entire street. At that time they wanted $40,000. With an "A" and "B" license, didn't need the City to demo the tree, saving another $5,000.

But of course, instead of digging up the street, I dug up my friends front lawn (trench) and removed a section of the old clay sewer line to gain complete access to the line going under the street. Used a circular saw blade attachments to my 3/4" sewer cable and cut out the roots. Then installed an epoxy liner to repair the sewer line. Replaced the line I removed in the lawn area. Put back the soil and compacting it in layers. Then putting back the lawn squares I carefully cut out. It was hard to tell that we even dug up the lawn.

My friend had gotten other estimates from other contractors and with the City fee's, they were all close to $70,000. We were able to get it all done for a few thousand doing my way.